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Finnegan, our younger white and black cat, got out a few weeks ago. This is the fourth time since we’ve lived in this house that he got out and I think he may just be destined to be an outdoor kitty. He certainly seems to prefer to be outdoors.

But… He keeps haunting our house. Teasing me. Standing on the flower bed outside the living room window and crying, but then when I go to open the door he disappears. Skulking about the yard and stopping and staring at me when I see him, but then running if I try and approach. Sometimes, I swear I hear him crying outside, but when I look he’s not there.

Today I heard Fiona on the porch meowing. I went out to see if there was a particularly interesting bird that caught her attention when I saw Finn on the other side of the screen. “Hey, Finny,” I said. He stared at me. I’d left a bowl of food out for him previously but it had gotten soggy and gross, so I went into the kitchen to grab him a new bowl of food. Of course, when I returned to the porch, he was gone. I put the food out anyway and said loudly, “OK, Little Finn, here’s some food for you!” and went back into the house.

A few minutes later, I heard Fiona in the living room crying. I went out to see what was up with her and she was standing on the back of the couch, looking out the window and face to face with Finnegan who was standing on the flower bed. Fiona was all puffed up and unhappy – she always forgets who he is when he leaves. Finn sat stoically looking in at us. I walked out on the front steps to see if he’d come in and he was gone.

I returned to the kitchen and heard Fiona again on the porch – I walked out and looked through the screen door and there was Finn eating the food I left for him. Of course, he wanted nothing to do with me, but I was happy to see that he’s alive and doesn’t look too skinny or dirty. I think he lives under the neighbor’s house two doors down and he seems to appreciate that I leave food out for him. I guess that’s his destiny to be an outdoor cat? Seems OK while the weather is nice, but I worry about what will happen to him this summer. I guess I’ll just have to hope that he decides to come be our cat again before then!

This morning as I was getting ready for my day, the thought crossed my mind that I hadn’t yet posted about how we lost one of our cats. My sweet little Finnegan, our shyer, younger, snugglier little boy cat got out about three weeks ago. Alex’s friend, Andy, was here working on putting the tile floor down in our kitchen and had the front door open when I got home from work one day. I saw both cats in the living room and said to Andy that we’d need to watch that the cats didn’t get out, since the bottom window of our storm door was broken and the pane was empty. Andy taped up a garbage bag on the door to keep the cats from getting out and I focused on getting Max fed, bathed, and to bed.

Later in the evening, when Andy was cleaning up to leave, I heard him call me from the front steps. “Alison… There’s a black and white cat out here.” I went out front and saw that somehow both of our cats had gotten out. I wasn’t so worried about Fiona – she’s a braver cat and I knew that she’d probably just stalk around the house and then yell to come in when she got bored. But Finnegan – he’s a scaredy cat. And he did exactly what I was afraid he’d do: he bolted.

I couldn’t go chasing after the cats since Alex wasn’t home and Max was inside sleeping. So after a few minutes of trying to coax them back in with no luck, I knew the only thing I could do was go back inside and hope that they’d come home. Fiona did what I thought she’d do – I checked out front an hour later and Fiona was there meowing to get back in. Unfortunately, Finn was nowhere to be found.

Finn has gotten out twice before – the summer after we moved into our house. He was out for about a week each time, but both times came home. Both times that he came home, though, he came home in the middle of the night and we found him because we happened to be awake and could hear him crying outside the open windows. It’s cold now, so there are no open windows, and with a baby to keep us busy, we’re usually passed out pretty early. I had very little hope of ever seeing my Finn again.

And then this morning, after three weeks have passed and I’d really started to think it was time to stop checking outside every time Fiona meowed like crazy for no reason, I saw Finn run across the street from out of the park to beside our house as I was leaving for work. I yelled to Max in the back seat, “Oh my God, that was Little Finn!!” I pulled my car into our front driveway and got out, yelling, “Little FINN!!” I followed him behind our house, trying to keep my distance because I didn’t want to spook him.

“Come here, Little Finn!” I pleaded. “Please come here! It’s cold out and it’s going to snow tonight and Mommy just wants to bring you inside and give you some food!”

Finny stopped and looked at me from across the neighbor’s yard. And then kept going into the yard beyond that. I followed him but then he disappeared right away. I saw that there was a hole in the wood foundation of our neighbor’s neighbor’s back porch. I think Finnegan has been hiding in there.

I meant to knock on their door after I got home from work tonight, but I forgot until after I put Max down to bed and couldn’t leave the house. I did put a bowl of cat food and Finn’s favorite blanket in a basket on our screened porch and left the door of the porch open. It’s way, way too cold to consider leaving the window from the house to the porch open (and besides, Fiona would be able to get out that way). I guess I’m hoping that if he does find his way into the porch to the food and the snuggly blanket, that maybe he’ll stay until the morning – though he’s such a scaredy cat that I’m sure he’d run away when he heard one of us approaching the door to the porch in the morning. I’ve compulsively checked the porch approximately 100 times in the last hour.

It’s so cold out. He looked skinny. I was so shocked to see him this morning – it’s amazing to know he’s alive, but the little fantasy I built in my head where he found another family and was somewhere happy and warm and fat was shattered. I feel so terrible knowing that he’s out there alone and cold in the dark snowy night right now. My poor Finnegan.

About Ali

I'm a mom to a gorgeous little guy named Max. I work outside the home full time, but in my "spare" time I love learning and am always working on projects that let me broaden my knowledge of sewing, photography, and any number of things that pique my interest!